People get so excited about this question, but it is of literally ZERO consequence. People try and make out as if whether Pluto is a planet or not is a big scientific question, as if we might say "OH! New evidence has come to light which might indicate Pluto IS a planet after all!" when really all the debate is is:"Shall we call it a 'planet'?""Maybe, what does that mean?""Nothing really, just we'd refer to it as a 'planet' in conversation.""Oh... so it the term doesn't really denote much of significance?""Not particularly..."

It's like when people go on about how a tomato is a fruit, except this debate is even more pointless as 'planet' is such a vague term, whereas 'fruit' at least has a precise biological meaning.

It makes them feel smart and trendy. Same crowd that makes Schroedinger's cat jokes at every opportunity because they saw a post about it on I Fucking Love Science's facebook page once, despite not actually understanding the thought experiment.

Well, the current best guess is that the number of TNOs that would qualify as planets(if the definition of a planet was altered to insure Pluto was included), we'd have somewhere like 200 planets in the Solar System.

Well, the current best guess is that the number of TNOs that would qualify as planets(if the definition of a planet was altered to insure Pluto was included), we'd have somewhere like 200 planets in the Solar System.

It makes them feel smart and trendy. Same crowd that makes Schroedinger's cat jokes at every opportunity because they saw a post about it on I Fucking Love Science's facebook page once, despite not actually understanding the thought experiment.

I'm assuming this is the same crowd that wears trendy thick glasses because it makes them feel "nerdy".

If you want to class Pluto as a planet, then there'll be a lot more planets in our solar system. There are quite a few other bodies of rock the size of Pluto. It's just like the difference between a rock and boulder.It'd be nice if people could stop having hissy fits about it.